I need to announce two changes to the Business Blog Book Tour.

On Thurs May 6th, we will be moving the stop from Dana’s Blog to the 800-CEO-READ Blog. Dana had some scheduling problems. Seth is going to post some more thoughts on the book similar to what he did here.

We have also added one more stop to the tour. You can visit Dave Lakhani at Bold Approach on Monday May 17th.

The schedule has been updated in the upper right corner, on the tour page, and I here in this entry.

Tour Stops

• May 3rd – A Penny For…
• May 4th – Brand Autopsy
• May 5th – Decent Marketing
• May 6th – 800-CEO-READ Blog
• May 7th – Brand Mantra
• May 10th – Ensight
• May 11th – WonderBranding
• May 12th – Business Evolutionist
• May 13th – Branding Blog
• May 14th – Thinking by Peter
• May 17th – Bold Approach

Sorry about the in-tour changes. I hope you’ll pass the word along.

Inquiring minds want to know:
If a company set-up a external blog to talk to customers, would you consider that a free prize? If not, what could you do to make it one?

Only if it’s worth talking about! Most blogs are boring, self-absorbed, trivial and not worth remembering, never mind talking to people about. Company blogs are worse, because everyone wants to play it safe.

Safe is risky!
Safe is invisible!

If you want to play it safe, please don’t bother wasting time on a blog. It won’t work.

A blog for your customers becomes remarkable when you start doing stuff like posting negative feedback and angry letters. Or when you post instructions on how to buy the stuff you sell, cheaper, from someone else.

NO, you don’t have to be self-destructive (I assume in both cases above, there’s a reason to stick with you, and your candor actually helps) but you must be remarkable.

How do you balance finding an edge and with finding a market big enough to sell to?

Big markets didn’t used to be big markets. They used to be small markets. There are 2.4 million blogs. There used to be 10. There are millions of people drinking bottled water. There used to be none.

If you can make your idea spread, odds are that you’ll find a market. The hard part isn’t figuring out what’s big enough. The hard part is being remarkable.

This is Trumina. She works at the Best Buy in Mount Vernon, NY.

She’s a Free Prize. People come from all over to buy something that without her is just a commodity. All digital cameras from Sony are the same, for example, until Trumina sells you one.

She becomes the Free Prize by breaking all the rules at the store, by telling the unvarnished truth and by going out of her way for people.

It’s not rocket science, but it works.

Yesterday, my dad had his cronies over. Fiftieth high school reunion, and since we’re local, we hosted. It was really fun.

After brunch, I served chocolate covered pickles.

Yes, they were a big hit. Plenty of conversation.

But Mickey did NOT say to my dad, “I’ve got to go out and get me some of these chocolate covered pickles.”

It was a gimmick, not a Free Prize, for the simple reason that it didn’t catch on.

That doesn’t meant that it won’t work for some people. It just means that outrageous is not remarkable and not everything weird is a free prize.

The free prize is just a gimmick until it becomes the thing that people talk about.

Putting my book in a cereal box (Seth Godin :: Free Prize Inside) is nothing but a gimmick, of course, until people start putting the cereal box on their desk and then using it as a way of starting a conversation about the book. Then it becomes just as important as the book itself. Sort of like frequent flyer miles.

When was the last time you shopped there? Last year, more than 85% of all Americans did, with almost 50% doing it weekly.

If that’s not you, you’re not getting the massive thing that’s happening.

They sell 30% of all the Tide that gets sold. 30% of a lot of other stuff too. They have a huge share of their sales in private label goods, and it’s getting bigger all the time. Why? Because they’re C H E A P.

So…

If what you sell is an average product for average people, tell me why those people won’t try to find it at Walmart. And if they try to find it at Walmart and there’s a private label or a competitor that just as average, but cheaper, why won’t they switch?

The lesson of Walmart (for consumers) and the web (for business AND consumers) is simple: If it’s not worth crossing the street for, you’re in a commodity business. And if you sell a commodity, you don’t deserve a profit. Trying hard doesn’t count.

The profit comes not from making your profit marginally better (because no one will notice marginally better, because people don’t care about you). The profit comes from finding a free prize and offering it to people.

After more than two years (really?) of posting my own blog, here I am on Todd’s, guest blogging to flog (flogging on a blog…) my new book, Free Prize Inside.

It’s a very weird feeling. Sort of like house sitting, but worse. I don’t want to break anything, don’t want to rearrange the furniture or leave my socks in the washing machine.

Hey, Todd, thanks for leaving a full fridge…

One week from today, we’ll start the Business Blog Book Tour here with Seth Godin and Free Prize Inside.

Mark it on your calendar.